The present invention relates to multi-person games, and more particularly to lottery-like games that can be played by a large number of people where prizes can be awarded. The game of the present invention can be played over the internet or in a physical location like a sports bar or casino.
There are many examples of games that are designed to be played by a large number of people. Some of them are well established in American culture, like lotteries and bingo. Lotteries are typically games of chance where players choose (or are assigned) number(s), and the winning number(s) are determined by a random process that is statistically independent of the particular numbers held by the players. Bingo is a game where players choose (or are assigned) a matrix of numbers (a card), and a sequence of numbers are announced. The winner(s) are the player(s) whose cards are first to have a row, column, or diagonal made up of announced numbers. More recently, fantasy sports, and various social games have proliferated on the internet. These games are also designed to be played by large numbers of people connected via a computer network.
In typical lottery games, lottery tickets are offered for sale to a potentially unlimited number of players. Each ticket is assigned an identifier, such as a number. After a set time period is over, a winning number is randomly selected for the lottery game, such as by selecting numbered ping pong balls from a barrel, and tickets matching the selected winning number are winning tickets. Each ticket number may be unique so that there can be only one winning ticket per game, or duplicate ticket numbers may be allowed so that there can be more than one winning ticket per game. The numbers on each ticket may be randomly assigned or the numbers can be selected by the players. If no ticket has the winning number, there will be no winner for that game and any prizes can be carried over to a subsequent game.
A downside to current lottery games is that they do not allow skill or input from the players to affect the outcome of the game. Instead, the outcome of each game is determined completely at random. It would therefore be desirable to have a lottery-like game which involves and rewards skillful play by the players instead of relying entirely luck or chance to determine the outcome.
It would also be desirable to have a lottery-like game which involves a different criterion for choosing winners than for other lottery games and which could be played by a large number of players as well as by a small to medium number of players.
It would also be desirable to have a lottery-like game which could be played at special kiosks in convenience stores and other public places similar to typical lottery games, and which could be played over the internet, through cell phone and small computer applications, or through an interactive website.